At the present time tanks, and other types of fighting vehicles, may carry a cannon, as their main gun, and a supply of ammunition for the main gun. For example, a tank may have a 105 mm or 120 mm cannon as its main gun. The tank, or other fighting vehicle, may carry many rounds of ammunition in its ammunition compartment, for example, for a 120 mm gun it may be desired that the tank carry anywhere from 20 to 100 rounds (cannon shells) of ammunition.
It is important that the ammunition be protected against damage which may occur due to bumping against other ammunition rounds or against other portions of the vehicle while the vehicle is in motion. Frequently the vehicle will be traversing rough ground and the vibration and shocks to the ammunition (called "road shock") may be considerable. In addition, if the fighting vehicle is under attack, it may be hit by an enemy shell, causing one of the rounds of ammunition to explode. It is vital that such an explosion of one round of ammunition be contained so that it does not set off additional rounds; the setting off of the additional rounds being called "fratricide".
In the past, the ammunition for the main gun consisted of a warhead mounted at the end of a metal shell case. The case, since it was of a relatively strong material such as brass or other metals, was quite resistant to damages from road shock. However, new types of ammunition have been proposed which do not utilize a metal shell casing. Instead, a combustible case extends from the warhead to a metal base plate. The combustible case, compared to the metal casing, may be easily damaged by bumping against other rounds of ammunition or by bumping against other portions of the vehicle while the vehicle is in motion.
It has been proposed that one type of rack design which may be used for the shock mounting of the ammunition and to prevent the warhead fratricide is a rack of metal sleeves, with a sleeve encompassing each of the ammunition shells. The sleeves are shock-mounted using mechanical linkages whose ends are fixed to the supporting walls of the ammunition compartment. A polymeric material (a flexible and resilient plastic resin) may be used as part of the mechanical linkage so that the linkage is resilient and shock-absorbent. However, each of the sleeves may require a number of mechanical linkages so that an ammunition rack having a large number of individual sleeves requires a large number of mechanical linkages and attachment fixtures. Individual shock-absorbing antifratricide shields may be positioned between each of the warheads, in order to prevent the detonation of one of the warheads from propagating to its neighboring warhead. The plurality of shields and their mounting brackets add to the complexity of the ammunition rack.
The use of individual sleeves, with each sleeve being mounted by a number of mechanical linkages and with individual shields positioned between the sleeves, presents a variety of problems and drawbacks. In some cases the mechanical linkages prevent the proper placement of the anti-fratricide shields so that the shields could not be positioned for the optimum anti-detonation effect. The use of separate shields, sleeves and mechanical linkages provides a complex and costly system requiring a large number of spare parts. In addition, the large number of components presents difficulties in manufacturing and in servicing, since the rack must be installed in the ammunition compartment after the compartment has been fabricated. Consequently, the installer or service personnel must align the anti-fratricide shields and adjust the shock absorbing mechanical linkages by access to the ammunition compartment through its doorways, although the limited space in the compartment makes such installation and adjustment difficult.